Exhibitions 2013

Probably no other German female photographer has followed the events of the past few decades as closely with her camera as Barbara Klemm. Her photographs show events of historic significance, encapsulating key images, turning points, and whole epochs.

Now, specially for the Martin-Gropius-Bau, the famous photographer has put together a grand retrospective of her work spanning five decades and comprising some 300 exhibits covering the whole range of her oeuvre since 1968: political events, student unrest, citizens’ initiatives, scenes from divided and re-united Germany, everyday situations, and the realities of life from all corners of the earth, as well as sensitive portraits of artists, writers, musicians and visitors to the museum.

Of the hundreds of Native American peoples, only a few have over the centuries engaged the European and Euro-American imagination to the extent that the Iroquois did. This fascination is in a large measure due to the outstanding role the Five (and later Six) Nations played in the arena of colonial encounters in seventeenth- and eighteenth-century North America, which gained them a reputation as fierce warriors and skilled diplomats and is also reflected in a host of fictional literature. But European interest has always far exceeded this pre-occupation with political and military excellence.

Berlin is dedicating a first major retrospective to Meret Oppenheim to mark the centenary of the famous artist's birth here on 6 October 2013. The playful and humorous treatment of everyday materials, conveyed with constantly new connotations, is a special feature of Oppenheim’s artistic works and links her to her artist friends whose company included Max Ernst, Alberto Giacometti, Hans Arp and Man Ray.

The photographs in the “Érotique voile” series (1934), in which Man Ray posed his model, are now among the most outstanding works of surrealism in the Parisian circles of which Oppenheim was highly acknowledged. The discursive power of her surrealism could be felt in 1983 when her Oppenheim Fountain was inaugurated in Bern’s Waisenhausplatz, a visit to which is highly recommended.

Anish Kapoor is one of the most important of the world’s contemporary artists. Since his first sculptures – simple forms with paint pigments spread out on the floor – Kapoor has developed a multi-faceted oeuvre using various materials, such as stone, steel, glass, wax, PVC skins and high-tech material. In his objects, sculptures and installations the boundaries between painting and sculpture become blurred. For his first major exhibition in Berlin he will use the whole of the ground floor of the Martin-Gropius-Bau, including the magnificent atrium. Some of the works will have been specially designed for this venue. The show, comprising about 70 works, will provide a survey of the abstract poetic work of this winner of the Turner Prize from 1982 to the present.

Horst Antes is one of the most internationally significant figurative artists of recent decades. Like few other German artists he has contributed to the global artistic debate. He has been represented at the Documenta in Kassel on three occasions. He has also exhibited at the Biennales in Venice and Sao Paolo. His works have also been seen in all the major European, American and Japanese museums and collections.

The exhibition in the Martin-Gropius-Bau will focus on his painting work, covering all his creative phases over a period of five decades – from casual beginnings circa 1958 to the spectacularly large and austere in-house images of the last phase. The show in the Martin-Gropius-Bau will be the first major one-man exhibition of the paintings in nearly two decades. About 90 pictures will be on display. They will be supplemented by other works closely bound up with his painting oeuvre: two sculptures, four “votive” images, and some books and portfolios designed by Horst Antes.

Johannes Itten and Paul Klee made their mark in the history of 20th century art with theories of colour that were as important as they were conspicuous. Both proceeded from the assumption that the order of colours was logically structured as a self-contained cosmos. New sources show that both artists referred to the same intellectual sources, some of them esoteric, and inspired each other. Both developed their ideas about colour in the course of decades of reflection and work and applied them liberally in their art.

The Bayer Collection is among the oldest art collections in Germany. Conceived as a educational facility for company employees in the early 20th century, it now includes around 2,000 works. Although the list of works does not have the character of a systematic encyclopaedic index, it actually reads like a who's who of the 20th and 21st centuries. It includes works by the great expressionists like Beckmann, Kirchner and Pechstein as well graphics and paintings by Pablo Picasso, Sam Francis, Miró, Gerhard Richter, Andy Warhol, Andreas Gursky, Imi Knoebel and young Ars Viva Prize winners. With over 240 works from 89 artists this exhibition presents a piece of art and company history. To mark the company's 150th anniversary the collection is to be shown in public for the first time.

In the male-dominated world of American photography Margaret Bourke-White (1904-1971) was a media star. Her portrait in flying gear setting off on a bombing raid, smiling and holding a camera in her left hand, was a favourite pin-up of the forces. Margaret Bourke-White always had to fight to get on. She wouldn’t let closed doors keep her out. The cover photo of the first ever issue of Life for November 1936 was by her, and to keep things simple she wrote the story behind it as well.

The exhibition presenting the work of the photographer consists of 154 photographs, letters and periodicals. The focus is on the pictures she took in the 1930s and 40s in the former Soviet Union, former Czechoslovakia, Germany, the UK and Italy. Also shown are such typical Bourke-White photographs as those she did for Eastern Airlines and the Chrysler Corporation. In the documentation section some of her word-picture sequences for the photo magazines Fortune and Life are on view as well as extracts from her correspondence with personalities from the worlds of politics and culture, such as Winston Churchill and Georgia O’Keeffe.

Michael Schmidt owes his outstanding position in contemporary photography to his ability to translate seemingly contradictory elements in his photography into a harmonious whole. While his constant search for novel approaches to photographic and social issues accounts for his singular status, his innovative project work and his extreme commitment have been considered a model for a generation of younger photographers.